Detected blight strain linked to Great Famine

Scientists have named a unique strain of blight which they believe triggered the Irish potato famine as HERB-1.

The famine, which saw 1 million people perish in the mid-19th century has been linked to a fungal disease called potato blight, from Mexico.

A team of molecular biologists from Europe and the United States reconstructed the spread of the potato blight pathogen from dried plants.